“He makes that play, and it’d be a whole different game right now,” said an ESPN anchor during a football game last night. Then, on the local news, “If Carmelo passes rather than take the shot, we’re in overtime.”
Um, don’t mean to be a school marm or anything, but haven’t these plays taken place in the past? Shouldn’t he have said “If he made that play…” and “If Carmelo passed … we’d be in overtime”?

I watch a lot of sports on TV and this happens all the time. Why do sportscasters seem to get a pass on bad grammar? Is it that they only need to appear brash and authoritative and notnecessarilysmart? It reminds me of the time I moved to Spain without speaking a word of Spanish besides “Átame!” and “Hable con ella,” and a friend told me just to speak in the present tense and begin each sentence with “ayer” (yesterday) or “mañana” (tomorrow). In other words, to take the easy way out while learning Spanish. So should Al Michaels start his Sunday Night Football broadcast with“Ayer… “ or do I need to move back to Spain and keep living in grammar oblivion?